By: SAPP MEDIA
FORMER Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Tham Nyip Shen should lodge a report with the police and Malaysia Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) to investigate allegation that money was paid to induce approval for Forest Management Unit (FMUs) license.
Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) President Datuk Yong Teck Lee said he was giving Tham 24 hours to do so.
"If he failed to do so then I wish to take the liberty to lodge report that Tham had committed an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act by concealing information," said Yong in a Press conference at the SAPP headquarters in Bornion near here Monday.
He was responding to Tham's statement claiming that "he had been reliably told on many occasions that there were people who received large sum of money after promising FMU deals to some people in Sandakan" presumably during Yong's tenure as Chief Minister.
"It look like those payment must have been made to Tham (because) he had earlier said that there is a lot of loot to be collected (from FMUs) so I assumed that the loot i.e money is for approval of the FMU concession.
"Now I assumed the loot were paid by those wanting to get approval for the FMU," he said, adding that many companies, however, realised that to get the FMU concession they had to sign the Sustainable Forest Management License Agreement (SFMLA) with very tough conditions.
He said the SFMLA was designed by the Forestry Department and vetted by the Attorney-General in order to protect Sabah's forest and it is not a logging concession.
Yong recalled that former Federal Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik had said then that the FMU was not commercially-viable.
"It seems that Tham has mistaken the FMU for logging concession … its crazy," he said.
Yong said he was giving Tham 24 hours to lodge the report to the authorities and state who are those people making the payment, who received the payment and how much.
"Again, all along he (Tham) never mentioned all this to me … it will be logical that Tham is the one who got the payment and he tried to get the FMU for KKIP Forest Sdn Bhd to fulfil what he failed to deliver," he said, adding it was up to Tham to deny this.
Yong said Tham had described the FMU as not good and that he had no knowledge about it when he was in the Cabinet but in his statement on Monday, Tham admitted that he had indeed applied for the FMU to assist an association of more than 50 furniture factory owners in and around the KKIP area.
Tham had said that the owners were worried about getting insufficient supply of timber and at competitive prices for their furniture factories once the forest is operated by private companies.
But, Yong said those operating the FMUs must have known by then that among the conditions in the SFMLA was the long gestation period up to 50 years before they can reap in the profit.
Yong said that at one time the KKIP was run by the Sabah West Coast Furniture Association, which has got nothing to do with KKIP Forest, a company under Tham's control.
Towards this end, Yong said Tham had practically confessed that he is a liar.
"I now call Datuk Tham Nyip Shen a big liar … sue me if you can," he said, adding that Tham had lied when he said he violently objected to the FMU.
"But we have produce four letters signed by him (Tham) in support for FMU including a KKIP letter requesting for funding and I believe there are many others," he said.
Yong said he had disclosed that Tham had applied for an FMU through KKIP Forest Sdn Bhd and "if he really objected it he should not have apply for it".
He said Tham's action was in the same way with his father Datuk Tham Kun Siong who engineered a wood industrial park in Keningau during the same time also applied for timber concession "supposedly to provide supply to the wood industrial park".
"We all know his father is the biggest furniture factory owner in Keningau," said Yong, adding that he had put all this behind him long time ago.
"(But) if he continue to tell lies about me I will continue to tell the truth about him," he added.
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